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David Forst Diary
December 25th, 2019
Part of me really wanted to work out a long-term contract for Jurickson Profar. We gave up so much to get him, namely pitching prospect Alberto Lopez. Now Texas has itself an ace-in-waiting, and we have... a one-year rental?
Profar has just one more year on his contract, and his initial asking price is $20 million a year, for 9 years. Not that I don't think he's worth it, but we simply don't have the room in our current budget to work out that kind of extension. We'd have to trade at least just two of our bigger stars just to make room for his salary. I briefly considered trading Taijuan Walker and Travis d'Arnaud, which would've given us enough money (barely) to sign Profar to a deal of roughly $16-18 mil a year. But there are too many negatives to even explore that route. And the upside isn't high in the kind of talent we would get in return for these two.
Instead, I've chosen a different road. Trade Profar and get what little value I can get. Plus, pair him up with one of the two suddenly arbitration eligible players I have on the roster. Cliff Jensen and Sancho Fajardo are both "Super 2" players, and are eating up more than $12 million in payroll this season. If I can trade one along with Profar, maybe I can sign the other to an extension... if not this year, maybe next. In a best case scenario, I can keep our team very competitive in 2020, and improve our farm system at the same time.
One of my early targets was Boston's Junior Estrella. He's been toiling in the Red Sox farm system, patiently waiting for a spot to open up in the Majors. But Xander Bogaerts is firmly entrenched at shortstop and Wendell Rijo has second base locked up. Now 26, Estrella is well overdue for his big break.
But as I had Erik Kubota scour the Red Sox minor leagues, he unearthed a gem in Manuel Colon. The Dominican 17 year old rates the second baseman off the charts in contact, and he's got phenomenal speed to boot. The BoSox also just happen to have one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball in Julian Riverva, who boast four "plus" pitches, including a 97 mph cutter. The wheels were turning. How do I pry these two away from Boston?
The answer wasn't simple... nor was it cheap. Putting Profar up for trade was a given. I reluctantly added Jensen to the deal, knowing full well the Red Sox will get an ace to add to the top of their rotation. But the biggest kick to the gut was having to part with John Ellison. We haven't even had him in our system for six months, and letting him go would mean we have no viable options at catcher in the minors for the foreseeable future. I added two other minor leaguers to the deal, while the Red Sox kicked in $4.8 million in cash.
2B/SS Jurickson Profar (.278, 12 HR, 68 RBI) - $9.5 million salary
RHP Cliff Jensen (14-10, 3.23 ERA, 214.1 IP, 168 K) - $6.875 million
C John Ellison (.255, 4 HR, 22 RBI in AA Midland)
CF Zhuo-cheng Chan (.242 in A Stockton)
LHP Sergio Suarez (2 relief appearances in AZL)
for...
RHP Julian Riverva (15-5, 2.67 ERA, 192.1 IP, 226 K in Class A)
2B Manuel Colon (.252, 25 SB in Short Season and Class A)
CL Jaime Martinez (22 saves, 2.21 ERA in Class A)
It's a trade I didn't want to make. It leaves us with two holes to fill... one in our rotation, and one in the infield. But I have to believe we're getting two future big league stars in return. God help me if we don't get a new TV deal in the next few years. I don't know how many more of these flips I can take. All it takes is just one bad flip to set our organization back a decade or two.
To make matters worse, on the same day we pulled the trade, Jose Fernandez signed a 6-year deal that will pay him $32 million per in Colorado, and the Tigers doled out a $25 mil a year contract to John Neise. While we're gutting our pitching staff, everyone else is stocking up on mega million dollar arms. It's not a good message to be sending to our new fans in San Jose.
The good news in all of this is we have a ton of payroll flexibility for this season, so I can start looking for some veteran free agents and hope to sign them to one-year deals.
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